ecology
noun
Simple meaning
The environment as it relates to living organisms.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkahluhjeeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪˈkɑlədʒi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
biology
The environment as it relates to living organisms
“It changed the ecology of the island.”
biology
The branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms and their environment
biology
The branch of biology dealing with the relationships of organisms with their environment and with each other.
by extension
Any study of the relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.
The totality or pattern of relationships of components of a system with their environment and with each other.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: The environment as it relates to living organisms
Used this way, ecology is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
“It changed the ecology of the island.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- bionomics , rarer, so it draws attention
Natural pattern: ecology of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ecology
- “It changed the ecology of the island.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The branch of sociology that studies the characteristics of human populations.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- biologynoun
- ecologicaladjective
- ecosystemnoun
- biospherenoun
- physiologynoun
- taxonomynoun
- geneticsnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: environment as it relates to living organisms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.